No One Left to Tell (72 page)

‘So you called the one person you could trust,’ Grayson said. ‘Stuart.’

‘He came right away. Knew we had to do damage control. He finished stabbing her, then came up with the plan to frame the gardener.’

‘What about the other MAC women?’ Hyatt asked.

‘We had a vulnerability,’ Dianna said. ‘I had to fix it. It was just a matter of time before one of the others got the idea to do the same thing Crystal did.’

‘So you hunted them down and killed them first,’ Hyatt said.

‘Yes, of course,’ Dianna replied. ‘I fixed it. I gave them chocolate. They fell asleep and died.’

‘Why did you hang them?’ Grayson asked.

She frowned. ‘I didn’t.’

‘Somebody did,’ Grayson said. ‘Quite of few of them were found hanging.’

Dianna caught her breath. ‘Oh. He did that. For me.’

‘Who?’ Hyatt asked.

‘Stuart. He fixed them for me. That’s what he was talking about. He told me a few days ago that I hadn’t killed them all and that he’d had to fix them. That’s what he meant.’ Her expression became almost . . . reverent. ‘He fixed them for me.’

Grayson and Hyatt left her at the table talking to herself.

Back in the observation room the others were still staring through the glass at Dianna McCloud.

‘Oh my God,’ Paige said. ‘She’s . . . what is she? Crazy or evil?’

‘Sane enough to stand trial,’ Daphne said. ‘That’s all I care about.’

Grayson rubbed his forehead. ‘Two down, one to go. I have quite a few questions for Brittany Jones.’ He looked over at Executive SA Yates. ‘We’ve got her dead to rights. I don’t plan to offer her any deals.’

‘I wouldn’t expect you to,’ Yates said. ‘Get in there and good luck.’

Brittany looked up when Grayson and Hyatt entered. Her eyes shuttered, her expression becoming sullen. Her lawyer introduced himself and stated that his client would be answering no questions.

‘I’m Lieutenant Hyatt,’ Hyatt said to Brittany, ignoring her attorney. He pointed to Grayson. ‘Him, I think you know.’

Brittany turned her face away. ‘I’m not talking to you.’

Grayson sat in the chair closest to Brittany. ‘Then you can listen for a minute. You’ll be charged with extortion and conspiracy to commit murder. That I was the intended victim makes me a little more than angry.’

‘I didn’t do it,’ Brittany said.

‘You stalled your friend at the nursing-home reception desk,’ Grayson stated. ‘You knew we’d be there. You sold this information to Stuart Lippman who in turn hired Harlan Kapansky to place a bomb under my car.’

‘You can’t prove that,’ Brittany said haughtily.

‘Brittany, be quiet,’ her lawyer admonished.

‘We’ve examined all of Stuart Lippman’s phone calls,’ Hyatt said. ‘Incoming and outgoing. On Wednesday night at 6.18
P.M.
, he received a call from a pay phone located in a gas station outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The security video at the gas station shows you, Brittany, making a call at exactly that time. A few hours later, Stuart transferred twenty-five thousand dollars to your bank account.’ Hyatt’s smile was cold. ‘So you see, Ms Jones, we
can
prove it.’

It had taken a great deal of scrambling to get the gas station’s security video. But, Grayson thought, the stunned look on Brittany’s face was worth every second of effort.

She and her lawyer whispered to each other. Then her lawyer looked up. ‘She gave you the dress. You never would have gotten the senator without the dress.’

That was probably true, Grayson thought. Still, he shrugged nonchalantly. ‘The dress is nice to have, but I didn’t need it. We have eyewitness testimony. The senator committed rape. Brittany committed attempted murder. They’re both guilty.’

‘The senator murdered, too,’ Brittany said, her eyes flashing. ‘He raped my sister, then he killed her.’

Her lawyer held up his hand. ‘Can we make a deal?’

‘Why?’ Grayson asked. ‘She has nothing to offer. I have everything and everyone I need. Either in custody or dead.’

Brittany’s eyes narrowed. ‘No, you don’t, or you wouldn’t be here. What do you want?’

Grayson nearly blinked. She’d read him well. He shouldn’t have been surprised. She’d read him well when he and Paige had visited her house, catching his sympathy when she’d said about her son,
He’s got only me
. She’d play havoc with a jury. All she needed to do was to convince one juror that she didn’t know what Lippman had intended and he’d have a hung jury. Then she’d walk. He couldn’t allow that to happen.

She’d tried to kill him.
She tried to kill Paige
. Fury bubbled up, and with it the resolution that this woman would go to prison for a very long time.

‘I want a full confession,’ he said flatly. ‘Complete with details.’

Her lawyer’s eyes widened. ‘You want her to plead guilty?’ He rose. ‘No. Absolutely not. Let’s go, Brittany.’

Brittany stood. Grayson didn’t move, just watched her. ‘You’ve got a son,’ he said.

Brittany froze, fury of her own filling her eyes. ‘Don’t you lay a hand on my son.’

‘Your son is in foster care,’ Grayson said. ‘He will be cared for. The question is, will you see him before he’s out of college? Or ever again?’

She became pale. ‘What do you mean?’ Her lawyer tugged on her arm, telling her to leave, but she shook him off. ‘What do you mean?’ she demanded.

‘Full confession and I’ll recommend you serve your sentence in Baltimore. Anything less and I’ll do everything in my power to see you locked up so far away that nobody will bring him to see you on visitation day. Ever.’

She lowered herself to her chair, trembling. ‘You can’t do that.’

Grayson’s jaw clenched. ‘Watch me.’

Her lawyer gripped her arm tight. ‘We’ll take our chances in court. Let’s go.’ He pulled her to her feet and she stumbled halfway to the door, still pale.

‘The maximum sentence for attempted murder in the first degree is life, Brittany,’ Grayson said. ‘It might be better for little Caleb’s foster mother to tell him you died. Better than him knowing his mother is rotting away in prison.
For life
.’

She turned, looking like she would faint. ‘You bastard.’

Grayson shrugged. ‘What’ll it be, Brittany? This offer is rescinded as soon as you walk through that door. Think carefully.’

She closed her eyes. ‘I gave you the dress.’

‘And I thank you. But I suspect you did it more for your own health than mine.’

She opened her eyes and Grayson knew he’d won. ‘Damn you,’ she whispered.

He pushed a notepad across the table. ‘Get busy. I don’t have all day.’

She sat, slowly. ‘What do you want to know?’

‘Why did Crystal go to that party?’ Grayson asked. ‘Why didn’t she just email the senator with her blackmail demands?’

‘Because she wanted to see his face when she confronted him.
He’d raped her
. She wanted him to know she’d won. The shrinks call it closure,’ she added bitterly.

That he could understand. ‘Why did you put your son in St Leo’s?’

‘Crystal wanted it. The day of the party . . . She was psyched. She’d found out the senator was giving a guest lecture at a university. She had to pay to take the class, but she said it was worth it. It was an investment in our future. She went and met him, the senator. She said she was terrified and exhilarated all at once. She was going to make him pay for what he did to her. She hadn’t expected Rex to be in the class too. That’s why the senator did the guest lecture. Because his grandson was in the class.’

Brittany shook her head. ‘She hated Rex. She remembered him, from that day. When she was twelve. She saw him with his fancy school uniform. St Leo’s. She tried to talk to him that day. She had a new dress and she was so proud of it. But she overheard him laughing at them, at their bargain-basement clothes. She was so hurt. And then that old pervert raped her.’ She stopped, her throat working as she tried to swallow.

‘Crystal went right to bed when she came home. Curled up in the fetal position. I asked her what was wrong but she wouldn’t say. She only cried. She didn’t say until she found out I was pregnant with Caleb. Then she said she had a plan. That they’d finally pay. She told me everything. And she said that she’d take everything McCloud owned. That her niece or nephew would have the same private school uniform. St Leo’s. That they’d have all the privileges McCloud gave his own kids. And Rex.’

She let out a breath. ‘When she was killed, I knew who’d done it. I knew it was the senator. But Lippman came along and offered me money. Fifty thousand dollars if I said nothing. I took it. But I couldn’t make myself spend it. It was . . . dirty. It had her blood on it.’

Having our blood on the money didn’t stop you from selling
us
out to Lippman
, Grayson thought. ‘So you put him in St Leo’s.’

‘Yes. Because it was what she wanted. And by then, I wanted the same thing. I wanted my son to have the best. The same as McCloud’s family. It was Caleb’s right.’

‘How did she get the senator’s phone number?’ Hyatt asked.

‘She slept with Rex. Waited till he was stoned and fell asleep and looked through his phone’s contact list. Then she started her campaign, flirting, seducing. Somehow McCloud must have found out. So he killed her.’

‘Why did she keep the dress?’ Grayson asked.

‘I asked her that when she told me her plan, six years ago. She told me the senator had raped her in 1998. That year the scandal with the president was all over the TV. That White House intern kept her dress. It was blue, too. Crystal figured one day she’d use it. After she died, I was afraid to. I knew Crystal was murdered by McCloud. I thought they’d kill me too, and I had Caleb to take care of. But then I needed the money because Crystal’s old mark – the one in the bankbook I gave you – he died.’

‘You never told him she was dead,’ Hyatt said.

She shrugged. ‘If he was stupid enough to not read the papers . . .’

‘So he died and left you without income,’ Grayson said.

‘Yes. So I knew I needed to blackmail the McClouds. Then that Muñoz woman was murdered, then the bar owner, Sandoval. I knew it was about Crystal. I knew you’d come. I figured I’d give you enough to suspect the McClouds. Then I could get more. They wouldn’t dare kill me now, not with Crystal’s murder being reopened. They wouldn’t want the cops to connect the dots. The rest you’ve figured out.’

‘You’ll allocate,’ Grayson said.

‘You’ll get me a cell in Baltimore?’

‘If it’s humanly possible, I will. You have my word.’ Grayson stood, incredibly weary. ‘You’ll be arrested now, taken to booking. We’ll talk again before your arraignment.’

He and Hyatt once again met the group in the observation room outside. ‘I think we’re done,’ Grayson said.

Hyatt scowled. ‘I have to give an update to the commander in half an hour. Do I need to know anything else? Any loose ends that could come back and bite us?’

Everyone in the room looked at one another, then shook their heads.

‘I think we’ve accounted for all of the victims,’ Grayson said.

‘Looks like Dianna is at the top of our leaderboard,’ Paige said. ‘She killed Crystal, Betsy Malone, and tried to kill Adele Shaffer. She also killed ten of the other MAC women. Plus she facilitated sexual assault of a minor, sixteen times.’

‘The senator committed sixteen counts of sexual assault of a minor, plus sexual assault against his own daughter,’ Grayson said. ‘And he tried to kill Crystal.’

‘Silas killed Elena,’ Paige said, ‘Jorge Delgado, Harlan Kapansky, and Logan’s mother. Lippman killed Sandoval and Bob Bond.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘And “fixed” all the MAC victims that Dianna didn’t kill properly the first time.’

‘Silas killed a lot of people before Elena,’ Stevie said. ‘We still have to sort through the weapons we found in his safe.’

‘I may be able to help with that,’ Jeff Yates said from the back of the group. ‘The state’s attorney himself got an email today, from Stuart Lippman’s account. It’s a detailed list of what he calls his “operatives”. Some were cops, some were ex-cons. IA has the list. It will take some time to go through all the information and prepare charges. But Silas was on his list. As was Elizabeth Morton. He used intimidation and threats against their families to keep them in order. At one point Morton tried to quit and Lippman had her child hit by a car. Her son still walks with crutches, years later.’

‘Oh my God,’ Daphne said, horrified. ‘What a monster.’

‘He was,’ Yates said. ‘But an organized one. He kept a roster of each “operative” and their jobs. I think you’ll be closing a lot of cases, Hyatt.’

‘I suppose that’s a positive,’ Hyatt murmured. ‘Any more of my people on that list?’

‘Not that I saw,’ Yates said kindly.

Stevie was frowning. ‘But Morton killed Silas. Why?’

‘Self-protection,’ Yates said. ‘Lippman notes in the cover letter that came with the list that all of his operatives know the list exists, and if he’s ever murdered or dies suspiciously, it will be sent to the state’s attorney. I don’t know who sent it, but Lippman trusted someone with the task. By making sure everyone knew they were on the list, he kept any one of them from going rogue and killing him.’

‘But Silas tried to kill him on Thursday morning,’ Grayson said. ‘He shot the window out of Lippman’s condo.’

‘You’d seen him,’ Paige said, ‘when you rescued Logan. Maybe he figured it was just a matter of time before you figured out who he was. He had nothing to lose.’

‘With Lippman dead, his family would be safe,’ Daphne said. ‘Unlike Morton’s son.’

‘Morton killing Lippman makes a whole lot more sense,’ Paige said. ‘And that she deliberately left Grayson’s mother for us to find. She didn’t want to work for Stuart.’

‘That will help her,’ Yates said. ‘She’s going to do some serious time, though.’

‘Wait,’ Lucy Trask said. ‘I may have one more body for you.’

‘Who?’ Grayson sighed.

‘Tentative ID via his body art is Roscoe James,’ Lucy said.

‘The cage fighter.’ Paige touched her neck, where the stitches had started to heal. ‘He tried to slit my throat in the parking garage.’

‘His own throat was slit,’ Lucy said. ‘He also had a high level of Rohypnol in his blood. He’d been dumped in the river and washed up this morning.’